Chris Andrews (Sinn Fein)

I thank the Minister for coming in. We are essentially being asked today to approve €20 million in public funding for Greyhound Racing Ireland. It is very difficult to support this allocation year after year in light of the significant issues of accountability, transparency and integrity within Greyhound Racing Ireland as well as a lack of value for money for the Exchequer in propping up this industry. The Jim Power report of 2021 claims that greyhound owners contribute €117 million annually to the economy. However, the analysis, using GRI's own data, shows this figure is overstated by 239%. The real contribution is closer to €49 million, not €117 million. The report includes coursing litters outside GRI's remit, counts dogs in the North within its total despite GRI not operating there, and assumes racing careers of 48 months when GRI's own data shows an average of just 9.6 months. The breeding pool is overstated, mortality figures are missing and the report itself admits, in bold capitals, that all of the assumptions came from GRI. This is not independent analysis. It is GRI grading its own homework, and it is not acceptable. Yet, the report omits the most critical fact: exports. Every year - this is an astonishing figure - 6,000 greyhounds are exported to Britain, which is underpinning a €2.7 billion gambling industry. At a 2019 Oireachtas hearing, GRI's own chairman admitted that, without exports, the industry would not be financially viable. Yet, exports, supposedly the very lifeline of the industry, are absent from the report measuring its economic significance. How flawed can you get? In fact, an analysis of the costings applied in the Jim Power 2021 report showed that the vast majority of greyhounds exported to Britain are exported at a loss. What that means is that the Irish taxpayers are, in effect, subsidising British bookmakers. Explain that to me. How does that make any sense?

On the issue of animal welfare, the Greyhound Racing Act 2019 promised a traceability system to track greyhounds throughout their lives. After two years, €295,000 in development plus €92,000 annually, the traceability system was launched in 2021. It was compared to the cattle tracking system and it was meant to cover all life events. That was the promise. What was delivered is an exercise in deception. The system fails to track life stages, excludes illness, excludes injury and performance and disconnects dropout causes from outcomes. Hidden within the inflated figures for active greyhounds are thousands of greyhounds that have not been accounted for. When the Minister for agriculture was asked for the gross match data, GRI failed to provide him with the figures in the last term citing irrelevant technical limitations of its own system - a non-compliance with its own system. There have been nearly 10,000 suspensions in two years for non-compliance by greyhound owners. A system requiring 5,000 enforcement actions annually is not a success; it is a failure by design. The current policy of unconditional funding rewards opacity, inflates economic claims and ignores systemic welfare failures. It undermines public trust and takes advantage of the taxpayer. We are being asked to allocate €20 million based on economic figures overstated by wide margins and a traceability system that has been absolutely shambolic. This is not value for money. It is a misuse of the Irish taxpayers' funds. What is needed is an independent analysis of greyhound racing in Ireland and the implementation of genuine tracking systems of greyhounds. What we have now is an unconditional taxpayer subsidy with no demand on GRI to be accountable or transparent to the public. Until that changes, we cannot expect to see improvement in efficiency and animal welfare within the greyhound industry.

I will also mention the practice of surgical artificial insemination. That is a barbaric practice. I am sure the Minister obviously knows what it is. For those who do not know, surgical artificial insemination is where the dog's abdomen is cut open, the uterus is removed, the semen is inserted, and the dog is sewn back up again. The dog is supposed to carry the pups through until birth while recovering from that operation. I know there are people here speaking up about greyhounds. How can anybody in this House justify that and see how that is okay to do to any dog? It has been banned for all the other dogs, so why not greyhounds? The Minister has carried out the report. He keeps saying that Government is considering it, but that has been going on for 16 months. Surgical artificial insemination is being carried out while the Minister is looking at that report. He cannot justify that barbaric practice. By not making a decision to ban surgical artificial insemination, he is effectively allowing it to go ahead. That is completely unacceptable. I do not think the vast majority of people in the public - taxpayers who are paying a huge amount of money to the tune of €20 million per year - would see that as good care for greyhounds.

While I have the information here, I will also mention the rescues. There are two rescue care homes for greyhounds.In 2024 they got €291,000 from the taxpayer, from this fund, and 36 dogs were homed. That is just over €8,000 to home each dog. Somebody is robbing somebody else. I hear people talking about greyhound welfare. I do not know whose welfare they are talking about because the greyhounds are not seeing any of the welfare and that is completely unacceptable. There is no value for money. The Irish taxpayer is being pickpocketed in order to pay for the greyhound industry and the so-called welfare. This Government and previous Governments have failed miserably on dog welfare and greyhound welfare. It is the Minister's responsibility and the buck stops with him. If he cannot see how inhumane and lacking the State is regarding the unacceptable practices that are being carried out with the permission of the Government, I just do not get it. Surgical artificial insemination is barbaric and it needs to be banned right away.